Trimble Juno and ArcPAD - Constant complications!

[TrevorReid]

Over the last year or two we've transitioned our field work to Trimble Juno GPS units running ArcPAD.    Our field staff are finding
constant and varied issues with the Units.   A simple Google search returns nothing about Trimble Juno complications.  How can this be?  I wanted to start a discussion about on-going issues with Trimble Junos to confirm we are not alone.     Here is a listed of the common problems we've encountered.

??? ArcPad freezing for no apparent reason (assume it is due the limited processing memory)
??? Far shorter battery life than advertised/dying batteries
??? Unexpected shut downs and errors
??? Difficulty obtaining quality GPS fixes even in ideal location/conditions
??? Shockingly low internal storage capacity (solved with an SD but confusing why it???s so low)
??? Shockingly poor Camera quality
??? Far less durable than advertised

We've recently just had a unit itself 'stop working' and it is on its way in for repair (less than two years old)

I'm aware these low-end Trimble Units but they are by no means cheap.

Eager to hear your thoughts on this topic.    If anyone has found work-arounds for the above noted problems it would be great if you could share.

[GrantHopkins]

Hi Danik,

Thank you for your reply. I feel a bit silly as I confused the two units we have. We just bought a Geo7X with ArcPad and I'm using ArcGIS for Windows Mobile on my T41. It's the T41 with AGS for Windows Mobile that won't connect to the GPS. Sooooo I'm in the wrong Forum.

Do you have a T41 successfully connecting to the GPS with AGS for Windows Mobile?

Sorry about the confusion!
Grant

[JamesMudd1]

We have about 20 Juno SB units, in service for about 5 years.  We've picked up 2 additional Juno 3B units to replace faulty units.  They have been workhorses for us, but we do have a lot of the same issues others in this thread have experienced.  We do a lot of wildlife surveys, so the accuracy has been acceptable (able to navigate and find a nest to repeat survey collection).  The camera does not have the quality/zoom required, so we don't use them at all.  We have had several units go bad, but over a 5 year period that is expected to a certain degree.  We've had a couple units where the USB port has failed (motherboard replacement ~the cost of a new replacement unit, hence the 3B units).  We have also had one just mysteriously fail to turn on, dead as a doornail- no tech support solution from vendor.  And a smashed screen here or there, but usually the otterbox does it's job. 

As far as performance issues, the most important advice I can give is avoid very large complex polygons!  Do not create multi-part polygons. Land Ownership is a critical layer for us (to avoid trespass issues).  The background matrix of contiguous private lands (this is not individual parcel data, just categorized public/private classes) can create huge, complex polygons that span across large sections of the state with tens of thousands of vertices, data holes, etc.  We use an overlay tool to split the polygons to bite-size units, like PLSS townships.  The other work-around is to clip your data to your project area to reduce the size of large or meandering features.  Google "arcpad perfomance tips" to get other tricks, like turning off extensions, layers, simplify symbology, zoom-in tight as possible to study area for checkout, etc. 

Found a lot of damn annoying bugs.  Reported to esri, but they don't seem to get fixed.  I.e. a definition query on a *date* field throws a serious error!  Have to use a query on a dummy field instead.  Minor workaround, but annoying as hell when you are trying to implement a clean, normalized geodatabase schema design across an organization.  <grumble, grumble>  Anyway, ...

Hope that helps.  Good luck!  Glad this thread was created.  We're still a few years out from implementing Data Collector on Android, so I'll be browsing this discussion again.

--Jim

[EugeneDashiell]

Hi all,

I have been using, recently, a Juno 5D. I got it because of the faster processor and beautiful display. I intended to use it either by itself, or as a data collector with my ProXH, thus replacing my Nomad. Here are the problems I have had:

a) cannot manipulate ArcPad with my fingers. I got some different types of styli, and found one from RadioShack ($20) with  the smallest tip....it works....fairly well, but not really well. I took off the screen protector because I could not get the device to respond well with it on.

     In the field the other day, during light showers, when the screen is damp/moist wet, I found that the touch screen is even less responsive.

     But, the weirdest thing of all is that the device "lost" a few points that I was sure I had collected and saved. How can it do this? I never experienced this happening with an HP PDA, a Recon or a Nomad. It lost about 3 or 4 points our of 12 days work of maybe a couple dozen points.  Nothing fancy in my data, not showing images, only a few background points and a simple 5 sided polygon for the site, only 44,000 sq m. How can it lose a few points out of a data set? If it was just one, or maybe two, then I would think that I messed up, what with the rain and attendant difficulties.

     I went back to using my Nomad, I much prefer the positive response of the device to the hard stylus. For me, I don't think that the Juno 5D is truly a reliable or viable tool. I was in Saipan, a long way from home or a dealership, and lucky I brought a couple of redundant systems (Nomad/ProXH, two Garmins, etc).